Journal of a Weary Engineer
by Darklink82
Summary: The journal of an engineer who gets trapped in the world of Dragon Age. SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS GO! Rated T for Language.
1. Chapter 1

In the year 9:41 Dragon a conclave was held by Divine Justinia in order to make peace between the Templars and the Mages and to try to get Thedas back into order. However, the blighted magister Corypheus interferes with the proceedings causing a large explosion which killed all who attended and destroyed any chance of peace in thedas. This resulted in a breach into the fade appearing and an elven mage being given a mark, the only thing that could close the breach and save the world. This... is not her story.

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Journal entry #1 June 13th 2017

I am keeping this journal to remind myself that this is actually fucking happening and not in fact a fucking dream I am not waking up from. Okay first off, I was driving into work, like any other day, except in the tunnel I used and a red portal or something opened up and swallowed me and my car up. Next thing I know I'm in a fucking cave or something and surrounded by a bunch of assholes in black robes who seemed utterly enthused by my appearance, even though I had one of them splattered in my windshield. Honestly it's all a bit of a blur and I think I blacked out for a bit cause when I woke up I was strapped to table and all the robed assholes were chanting. Figuring out was was about to go down I screamed at them to stop but was ignored.

That's about when a group of people burst in and started killing everybody. One of them was shooting lightning out of her fucking hands so I just waited screamed for their help and waited for something to happen. One of the cultists almost plunged a knife in me but was, thankfully, interrupted by an arrow to the face. That about when I realized that the person who shot the arrow was very short and holding a Crossbow . I think I passed out again after that.

After that I rudely awoken by that same person who O realized looked like a "fantasy dwarf" (WTF) who wanted to know who I was (again WTF). I told her that I was Garrett and currently confused beyond rational thought. She thought I was funny. I saw the rest of them, three people(one male two female) examining my car.

Anyway the one of the women, the one shooting lightning approached me and asked me what I was doing. I pretty much told that I had no idea what was going on and told her that I was just pulled through a red portal while on the way to work. She had pointed ears...I'm in a fantasy land, god dammit. Anyway she seemed to sense something off about me but seems to believe that I am from a another world, at least for now. She introduced herself as Ferah. We have set up camp outside the cave and right now I just want to get some sleep so...done.

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Journal Entry #2 June 14th 2017

So I pretty much got an info dump over the past two days so here goes. I seem to have ended up in a continent called Thedas, these people don't have a name for the planet it seems. They said that they were investigating a group of blood mages who were experimenting with space manipulation. Apparently they were using a recent magical event as well as copious amounts of blood to power the experiment. When I described they portal they said that it sounded similar to various rifts that had been occurring with the exception of the coloration, they were green not red. It also explains why they believed me so readily about coming from another world.

They questioned me about where I came from and told at least some of what Earth is like, enough to explain the car at least. The male Elf, Solas I think (soulless?(nerd senses say bad news)), seemed to be befuddled and somehow offended. The dwarf, Varric, seemed to be fascinated and wanted me to explain some things in detail, given his semi auto crossbow I think he might be helpful in the future. He mentioned that he is an author and would be interested in getting more info to add to a possible book. I might have just invented Sci Fi here...Fuck yea.

Anyway the human, Cassandra, mentioned that the rest of the Inquisition (oh right they are from an "inquisition" this will totally go well for me) would need some proof to believe my story so we went back to the cave to see what I could get from my car.

To be frank, it was trashed, utterly fucking trashed. The engine block was ripped apart by the portal, I'm guessing, and the axle was completely bent out of alignment. It sure as hell wasn't going to go anywhere on its own. Thankfully it still had my old textbooks and tool kit in the back so that was something. I already have ideas that will make the explosives engineering book very useful. Might need to use part of my apocalypse plan. I also had my car charger and my phone so that should make life a bit easier here. I also scavenged the alternator and battery from the car so I should be able to set up a kinetic power generator eventually.

The group mentioned that they might be able to hook up some horses to the carriage (best let them think that) and take it with them as proof. The two mages sealed the cave with a magic barrier of some kind, (Ward?) and said that we were going to get horses from a local horse master, but that we'd stop by a base camp in the meantime to restock and give me time to adjust.

* * *

First story, felt like doing something similar to Stranded in Fantasy ( /wiki/Stranded_in_fantasy) since story structure is not a thing I can do yet and the style fit in my head.

The writing might be somewhat disjointed to show the journal writer being stressed and easily distracted, any comments on how I could improve that would be appreciated.

Will probably be updated in sets of two entries and at a frequency of whenever I get to it. I am easily distracted and might not get to it for a while.


	2. Chapter 2

Journal Entry #3 June 16th 2017

The team that rescued me left me at one of their bases while they went to get the horses. Apparently I am in an area known as the Hinterlands. Apparently this inquisition only has minor religious support and was mostly formed as an emergency peacekeeping force. It seems that due to various injustices(confinement, abuse, and bigotry) mages rebelled against the force keeping them imprisoned, Templars (this is ridiculous). This caused a war which has been widespread and recently culminated in a large explosion at a potential peace conference. This explosion evidently ripped a hole in the sky to a dream realm or something.

Speaking of which, I finally learned what the magic nonsense is about. It seems that some people have an innate mental connection to the dream realm, known as the fade, they draw energy from this place to perform magic or make pacts with spirits that do things for them. Templars apparently use a mystical substance called lyrium that allows them to suppress magic by reinforcing reality somehow. This lyrium is also addictive if some of the soldiers here are to be believed. So the mage templar situation was created because someone thought it was a good idea to put a bunch of people who had powers that they possibly would not be able to control under the supervision of a group of fanatical drug addicts with complete control over them. I am honestly surprised it took this long because this system has STUPID written all over it. To me it seems that the main problem is the central religious group that created this system in the first place.

Anyway, it's very likely that the "breach" is what caused me to be brought here. The "Blood mages" that brought me here evidently were experimenting with spacial distortions and were using the breach to bore a hole into another dimension. They just happened to see me and assumed that my blood would power a bigger version of the spell which explains the sacrificial nonsense they were pulling before I was rescued. One of the inquisition mages,an elf by the name of Pivel, has been helpful in informing me about what could have brought me here. He told me that "Blood Magic" is different from normal magic since it involves using blood and life energy to power magic rather than fade energy. I'll need to ask if it is possible to power magic in other ways, like using high explosives or kinetic energy.

I got outfitted with some equipment as well to ensure my survival on the journey. I was given a set of chainmail armor that seems to fit fairly well as well as a pole axe for offensive purposes, I had to specifically request the pole axe since everyone seems to use swords here. (possible metal abundance?). I was also given a crossbow for ranged combat and a short sword for up close fights. Seems I was only given this stuff since my situation is so unusual. I've been sure to stay near Pivel since I'm pretty sure I can't fight magic without his help. It definitely isn't because he is the only person who has even tried to be a decent person to me in the camp, not at all.

* * *

Journal Entry #4 June 18th 2017

The camp was attacked last night by rebel templars. The attack started near the middle of the day, they must not be thinking clearly from lyrium withdrawal. For most of it I stayed behind cover and shot at them with the crossbow but near the end they were starting to get past the defensive line. One of the survivors said that they were angry because their main force was taken out by Ferah and her group on as they went to get horses. Eventually the forward troops had to withdraw as another wave approached, Pivel and I attempted to help at range and cover the retreat alongside the other bowmen and mages, but eventually they got to us and we had to defend ourselves.

I'm sure I hit a few templars when I was covering the frontline fighters but they weren't right in front of me and I figured I was only getting crippling hits. One of them managed to surprise us and attacked us from behind. He attacked Pavil first and stabbed him in the leg, I freaked out and hit him in the head with the pole axe, he died instantly.

We were rescued by a dwarf woman, later learned her name was Reca, who fought off the rest while I carried Pivel to safety. Pivel managed to launch a few spells at them while I was carrying him too. Once I got him to the medics Me and Reca helped defend the medical tent until Ferah and her team arrived and fought off the rest of the attackers. We actually didn't lose anyone but we had to kill almost all of the templars until they stopped fighting.

What the fuck have I been dropped into.

* * *

Journal Entry #5 July 19th 2017

Reca, Pivel and I have started a little group of our own. I ended up staying with Pivel as he recovered from the sword wound and Reca kept showing up to see how we were doing. Based on the jokes she kept making while Pivel was unconscious this place doesn't have much homophobia, so that's actually pretty neat. When Pivel was ready for moving (magic healing works well it seems) we went with Ferah's team to the cave I was found in and hooked the car up to a few horses and moved it out of the cave. Pivel and Reca have volunteered to come with on the way to Haven, and keep us all safe, I'm personally thankful since I can actually trust them.

Checking over my car again I found my Laptop so I'll be able to do some propor math once I get a generator built. Calculators are good but matlab is so much better. And my tablet, I'm starting to think I have way too many electronics. The tablet might help with explanations due to the movies I have on it.

Solas still seems to distrust me for some reason. From what everyone else has told me he showed up out of nowhere after the breach appeared and helped Ferah with the mark that no one else could help with, not suspicious at all. Seriously I'm pretty sure he is up to something, I'll keep the info to myself for a while until I can find whoever is in charge of this "inquisition's" intelligence.

Pivel and Varric have been listening to some of my stories about home, especially the technical bits with the self moving carriages, non magical golems, and flying machines. I'll keep explosives close to the chest for now, at least until I have the resources to make some. Anyway I've hopefully explained videos to them so when I start watching stuff out of boredom on the trip.


End file.
